Timeline 1230-1240 (Interference)

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1231-1235

1230-1240

Black Africa:
King Sumaoro Kante of Sosso holds paramountry over the Mandinkas living along the upper flow of the Niger River.

1230-1260

North Africa, East Africa:
Bedouin Arab tribes overrun most of Nubia, trying to flee the oppressive Mamluk rule in Aswan. Nubia is gradually Islamicized, as Christianity begins to fade away.

Middle East:
The Myriamite faith spreads in Syria, Lebanon and eastern Anatolia, vainly persecuted by both Christians and Muslims.

1231
British Isles:
Wales is wracked by civil war beyween king Owain III's older sons, Dafydd and Gruffydd. Norman intervention helps Dafydd to prevail; king Owain is ousted from power and exiled to Ireland.

Western Europe:
Massacre of the inhabitants of Carcassonne, in Gadary/Languedoc, after a failed revolt against Norman rule. Emperor Thomas of Greater Normandy appoints his cousins Philip of Caen and Robert the Black respectively as viceroy of Toulouse and hereditary duke of Catalonia.
Infamous sack of Gumbusdeira (*OTL Santiago de Compostela) and its holy places by the Coghound pirates:mad: .

Southern Europe:
Roberto I of Lombardy and Ezzelino III da Romano crush the Venetic League and its Venetian allies at the battle of Campalto, extorting rich tributes from the vanquished towns. Venice is put under land blockade for her role in supporting the rebels.
The Mensa Palatina, the Lesser Norman nobles' Parliament, first assembles in Melfi. The nobility has gained much power under the ineffective reign of young William III.

Middle East, Byzantine Empire:
Armenia Minor's prince consort Demetrios of Canossa-Novellara inherits Cyprus upon the early death of his brother Peter, lord of the island.

1231-1232

Western Europe:
Robert V of Flanders-Hainault dies after a prosperous rule which brought the march to independence and its apogee. Soon, however, his heir Robert VI is murdered by his own brothers Louis and Baldwin, and the land descends in civil war as the Communal towns begin to rebel against feudal overlordship.

Caucasus:
The Saifid Arabs devastate the former Ortoqid domains with repeated invasions, being finally repulsed by the newly arrived Turkic tribes from Persia/Iran and Azerbaijan.

Far East:
The Mongols invade Goryeo/Koryo (Korea), extorting tributes. When the Koreans move their capital from Songdo/Kaesong to Ganghwa island, the Mongols reinvade, but encounter fierce resistance and are forced to retreat; their commander, Sartai, is killed in battle.

1231-1233

Caucasus:
The Mongols crush Muslim rebellions in Azerbaijan and repeatedly raid Iberia/Georgia; the latter country, though namely still united, shatters into minor kingdoms ruled by competing Bagratuni scions reduced to a terrorized subservience to the Great Khan.

1231-1234

Far East:
The Mongols, in alliance with the southern Song dynasty, grind down and eventually liquidate the Jurchen Jin dynasty of northern China, destroying their last capitals, Kaifeng and Jingzhou.

1232

Western Europe, British Isles:
Emperor Thomas I the Catholic of Greater Normandy dies while planning a campaign to restore peace in Flanders-Hainault. The crown passes to his cousin, duke William of Normandy, as William VI: he soon proves not to be interested at all in matters of state, leaving de facto in charge of the empire his ambitious Northumbrian wife Rowena and the sociopathic inquisitor Robert le Bougre, a renegade Cathar from Lombardy proper:eek: .

Southern Europe:
Venice pays a rich tribute to king Robert of Lombardy :o to be freed from the land blockade, significantly ruining its trade. Doge Jacopo Tiepolo has to knee before the Lombard ruler and formally acknowledge him as feudal overlord of the Most Serene Republic:o :o :o , a humiliation the Venetians, masters of a quarter of Constantinople, won't forget so soon. Ezzelino III da Romano, acting for king Robert, subdues Verona, the last Venetic city to yield to royalist forces.
The Bosnian Bogomils depose ban (duke) Stephen, a hardline Catholic, replacing him with the more sympathetic Matej Ninoslav.
Byzantine Empire, Southern Europe:
Czar Theophilus of Megavlakia inflicts a crushing defeat to the Serbs in the battle of the Morlach Fields along the Toplica river: Serbia is vassalized under its king Stefan III Radoslav the Blind. Stefan III's brother, Stefan IV Vladislav, takes over in Zeta (*later Melanoria, OTL Montenegro) preserving independence; however most of Albania falls into the power of the Vlacho-Bulgarian Czar.

Central-Eastern Europe:
A Mongol army defeats the Volga Bulgarians on the Ural river, conquering the southern part of the local Bulgarian state.

Middle East:
Demetrios, lord of Cyprus and prince-consort of Armenia Minor, ousts the Templars from their possessions in the island to steal their riches, entering into conflict with Templar-held Antioch.
A “Khorezmian” (Turkic) horde fleeing the Mongols defeats the Saifid Arabs in the battle of Marida/Mardin (Kurdistan) and ravages most of Syria and northern Iraq.

East Africa:
A party of a hundred Templars arrived by sea from Egypt help Yetbarak gain the throne of Ethiopia against his reigning cousin Na'akueto La'ab. The Templars, then, with help from the Siculo-Genoese fleet based in Suez, establish a fortified port at Kaladiopi (*OTL Marsa Ibrahim, Eritrea). Its aims are trading with Christian Ethiopia, extorting tribute form Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca, exerting piracy and securing a route to India and its valuable goods - which, despite the occasional nature of the Indian trade, are making the Order immensely rich.

1232-1235

British Isles:
Northumbria falls in chaos after a massive Arnaldist rebellion in Yorwich (*OTL York) led by the False Thurstan, a minor noble from Cumbria (*OTL Cumberland), culminates in the slaughter of king Godwin I Strong Arm and half the royal family. The False Thurstan, pretending to be Godwin's long dead estranged son, manages to remain in power three years as several pretenders from the Godwinson royal clan claim the throne, supported either by Alban-Scot or Greater Norman armies sent into the Northumbrian meatgrinder. When finally Godwin's grandson Oswald the Hammer reduces Yorwich after a grueling siege thanks to Greater Norman help, Northumbria is a devastated country; in the meantime the Alban-Scots have reconquered Cumbria.

1233
Southern Europe:
To appease the Papacy, upset over his annexation of Corsica, king Robert I of Lombardy begins another round of most violent eradication of Catharism, allowing the institution of the Papal Inquisition also in his reign. Paradoxically Catharism is stronger in Milan, a count-bishopric where officially the Pope is supreme as in any other ecclesiastical state (as for the Third Lateran council of 1216).
Pope Dominic III is succeeded in Rome by Silvester II (archbishop Lanfranco of Ravenna, a scion of the Canossa clan), elected as a neutral choice to keep down unrest in the city between the Frangipane and Colonna factions.
Byzantine Empire:
The Akrite Order captures Melitene (*OTL Malatya) from the crumbling Ortoqids and defends it against repeated assault from the encroaching Turkic hordes from Ahlat (*Armenia).
A “Crusader” Latin Army bolstered by some Teutonic Knights crosses the Bosphorus, but their siege of Nicaea fails. They are later disastrously defeated at Frangonica (*OTL Yenişehir) by Byzantine forces and Turkic mercenaries came from eastern Anatolia.

Middle East:
Having found a leader in Sungur Beg, the Turko-Khorezmian hordes roaming Syria ally with the Templars against the Saifid Arabs and crush them at the battle of Homs. Aleppo falls to the Templars, Edessa (*Urfa), Harran and many other cities to the Sungurid Turks; only Damascus resists under the Saifids.
Arabia:
The Saifid sultan Musa al-Jawhar Ghazi dies in Medina, leaving the throne to his appointed heir, Muhammad Nasir-ud-Din.

Far East:
A Mongol army liquidates Dongxia, a splinter Jurchen state just north of Korea, capturing its warlord Puxia Wannu, who had more than once switched alliances.

1233-1234

Northern Europe:
The Arnaldist peasant rebellion of the Stedingers in Eastern Frisia is crushed by a “Crusader” army summoned by the Papacy and the archbishopric of Bremen after the battle of Altenesch.

1234
Western Europe:
Greater Norman intervention in Flanders-Hainault in support of Eudes, a cousin of emperor William who claims matrimonial rights over the marchional throne, precipitates a general conflict, as Otto, the Staufen ruler of Saxony-Brunswick, in turn intervenes in help of his brother-in-law Louis, the last surviving son of Robert V. The treacherous about-face of king Henry VII of Luxemburg against his Greater Norman overlords causes a major defeat for Norman forces in the great battle of Rebecq. Louis become the margrave of Flanders and Hainault. Having duke Theobald IV the Chansonnier of Champagne fallen in the battle, so extinguishing his dynasty, Champagne is occupied by Luxemburg, as is most of Lorraine.
Eudes II of Brittany dies without male issue after a very long and peaceful reign; he is succeeded by the English-born cousin Roger I from the Rohan-de la Zouche family branch.
North Africa:
The Coghounds of the Canaries are defeated by sea at the hands of a coalition between Genoa, Andalusia and Mauretania (*OTL Morocco); they begin to turn from an outright pirate brotherhood to a sea-trading republic with an elective prince-for-life, chosen by the former pirate chiefs between the local Guanche menceys (kings). The Canaries by now have turned on the cultivation of sugarcane, exploiting slaves from western Africa and native Guanche serfs. Another sugar-growing region is Egypt, where the Templars have a monopoly.

Byzantine Empire:
The Genoese and Nicene Byzantine fleets crush the Venetians in the battle of Tenedo; the Byzantines then recapture Gallipoli, sealing Constantinople from external help.
Michael I Megaplatos, the ruler of Turcopolia, liquidates the despotate of Thessaly, doomed by infighting among its rulers from the Melissenos family.

India:
A Mongol expedition plunders Ujjain, capital of the kingdom of Malwa, which is forced to accept Mongol overlordship. The unusual climate stops further Mongol penetration into India.

Far East:
Movable type metal printing is first employed in Korea to print the second example of the Tripitaka Koreana, a holy Buddhist text which was lost in the first Mongol invasion. However, due to the complexity of Chinese writing used in the region, printing will not still achieve mass diffusion for centuries to come.

1234-1239

British Isles:
Cormac mac Art O'Melaghlain, local king of Meath/Mide, leads a fierce revolt against Norman encroachments, freeing wide areas in the center of the island in alliance with the northern O'Neills from Ulster and their Picto-Scottish allies.

Southern Europe:
Hungary campaigns against the Bosnian Bogomils; Prijezda I is the new Hungarian-appointed ban (duke) of Bosnia, as his cousin Matej Ninoslav resists in remote mountain fastnesses with few followers.

1234-1240

British Isles:
Owain III of Wales reenters from his Irish exile with help from his relative earl Patrick I Maddox of Dublin, and carves his last domain in Deheubarth (SW Wales) against his son Dafydd II; upon his death Deheubarth reverts to the Welsh crown.

1235

British Isles, Western Europe:
Henry VII of Luxemburg, Louis I of Flanders-Hainault and Otto of Brunswick invade northern France coming in sight of the Rouen, the Greater Norman main capital. The Capitulation of Soissons, a major blow for Greater Normandy:o , grants all of Champagne and Lorraine to Luxemburg, restored to its previous greatness; Valenciennes is retroceded to the Flemish, together with all land northeast of the Somme river. The Staufens of Saxony-Brunswick gain the port of Antwerp with control of duties over the Scheldt delta from their Flemish allies.
The Papal Inquisition is allowed to operate into the empire of Greater Normandy through the efforts of the nefarious chamberlain Robert le Bougre, who, named inquisitor general, begins horrible purges against true and perceived heretics:eek: .

Southern Europe:
Ezzelino III da Romano defeats at Rovigo margrave Azzone VII of Este, the last major rebel against the Lombard crown; by now the fierce master of Veneto has become the most powerful man in the Lombard kingdom, and even king Robert begins to be afraid of him.
Byzantine Empire:
As the Vlacho-Bulgarians besiege the Teutonic Knights in Adrianople, the Nicene Byzantine army reconquers an underguarded Constantinople with a sneak attack. Latin Emperor Matthias and Latin Patriarch Nicholas de Castro Arquato are captured and later traded back for a huge ransom, and Theoktistos I Megas Branas is hailed into the ruined city as the legitimate basileus of the “Romans”, earning the nicknames “the Restorer” and “the new Constantine”. In exchange for the instrumental help of the Genoese fleet, the basileus grants Genoa his few remaining possessions in the Taurida (*OTL Crimea).

ca. 1235

Southern Europe:
The Ridolfi, a family of remote Lombard ancestry, consolidate their power from their base in Camerino (Marches) as vassals of the Pope-king.

Central-Eastern Europe:
Hungary establishes relationship with the last Magyar (Ugric) tribes still living in the Urals, the Bashkirs, learning about the impending Mongol menace.

Black Africa:
The Mossi kingdom of Wagadugu (*taking its name from the actual self-styling of the former Ghana Empire, where “Ghana” was the ruler's title) emerges between the Gold Coast (*OTL Ghana) and upper Volta (*OTL Burkina Faso) under Mogho Naba (high king) Nedega. Actually the Mossi people are divided in several kingdoms acknowledging a vague suzerainty of the Wagadugu king.

Northern Europe:
Vykintas and Mindaugas, pagan chieftains in the service of the Lithuano-Ruthenian empire, decisively rout the Livonian Swordbearers at the battle of the Sun fought at Šiauliai/Schaulen. The vanquished Swordbearers, besieged in Riga, surrender then to the aged Czar Iwan I Skirmunt, who accepts them as vassals. Their forced Christianization of nearby Baltic tribes has to stop.

British Isles:
Greater Normandy intervenes in the Welsh civil war, conquering all of Pengwern (*the western side of the Severn river) and SW Wales. King Dafydd tries to counter, but is captured, deposed, and replaced by his more compliant nephew Owain IV (*OTL Llewellyn the Last).

Southern Europe:
A civil war explodes in Veneto between rector (high governor) Ezzelino da Romano and his brother Alberico. Ezzelino gives proof of exceptional cruelty: first he trounces in blood the rebellion of Verona, then assaults Vicenza and murders Alberico, and in the end defeats the Paduan militia, exterminating 10,000 of them and most notables of the town:mad: . He earns the nickname of “Attila II”:D for his deeds.
The Comune of Savona yields to the blockade set up by the Genoese, victorious at the naval battle of Capo Noli against Savona's allies, Nice and Marseille. Savona is forced into vassal status.

Byzantine Empire, Central-Eastern Europe:
The Teutonic Knights surrender in Adrianople to the joint forces of Megavlakia and Byzantium. Basileus Theoktistus I and Czar Theophilus prove generous and grant the valiant knights free passage to Denmark, whose king Valdemar II the Conqueror needs them for the conquest of pagan Prussia. Adrianople itself is shared between Byzantium and Megavlakia, who cement a solid alliance.

Middle East:
The Turko-Khorezmian chieftain Khayun Beg conquers Mosul, making it his domain.

India:
Yäsüntoä, a grandson of Chagatai Khan, is made khan of Hindustan, the fifth Major Mongol khanate, establishing his capital in Suvarnapura (“the golden city”, *OTL Jhang).

1236-1237

Central-Eastern Europe, Caucasus:
Batu, son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis, leads his Mongols to annihilate Volga Bulgaria in a ruthless genocide campaign, and establishes a western capital at Sarai Batu along the lower Volga. He later crushes the restive eastern Kipchak/Cumans and Alans north of the Caucasus. The Kipchak khanate entrusted to Batu will be known as the Golden Horde, from the unification of the Blue (eastern) and White (western) hordes under his command (*see .ca 1225).

1236-1238

Far East:
The Mongols attack Song China in the west, conquering most of Sichuan against determined resistance.

1237

Northern Europe:
The Teutonic Knights and the Danish fleet conquer the Prussian trading port of Truso/Elbing; the Knights begin the difficult task of subduing the stubborn Prussians.
Southern Europe:
Open war erupts between king Robert of Lombardy and Ezzelino da Romano, now excommunicated by the Church for his cruel massacres in Veneto. In the moment of need, Robert finds himself deserted by most allies, and Ezzelino, with his army comprising Hungarian and Cuman mercenaries, defeats and kills him at the battle of Castiglione Canossa (*OTL Castiglione delle Stiviere). Robert was the last of the Amadei Anscarids of Lombardy, and his death causes the fall of the kingdom, as few recognize the self-proclamation of Ezzelino at Monza. At once many rise in rebellion: local feudatories, chiefly the Seprio, the Montferrat, and most of all the Guidoni Anscarids of Piedmont, whose head Umberto III of Rivoli in turn proclaims himself king of all Lombardy. Soon an anti-Ezzelino front forms around the archbishopric of Milan, the counts of Seprio, the Comune of Pavia (now free from royal control) and the county of Lomello. In the meantime Venice and Pisa simply resume their old independence and ally against Genoa.
Emperor Felix Posthumous of Sicily dies, leaving the kingdom to his oldest grandson, Alexander I nicknamed the Egyptian.

Byzantine Empire:
Turkmen raiders fleeing the Mongols overrun central Anatolia, sacking and burning Angora, but are withheld and later absorbed by other tribes already in the service of the Byzantines as border guards.

1237-1238

Central-Eastern Europe:
In the winter months the Mongol army led by Subotai and Batu Khan attacks Russia using frozen rivers and lakes as highways: Old Ryazan is besieged an razed, as Kolomna, Moscow and Vladimir:eek: ; the surviving forces from the Russians principality of Vladimir, led by prince George II, are crushed at the battle of the Sit river. The Mongols then pillage and burn at will scores of other towns (only Kozielsk resists to the last man under its boy-prince Titus, inflicting heavy casualties) and start a mass migration of refugees to the four cardinal points:eek: :eek: :eek: . Surviving Rurikid princes pledge submission in exchange for life and continued rule under Mongol suzerainty.

1237-1244

Western Europe:
The Great Jewish Rebellion:confused: explodes in Septimania when Philip, the Norman viceroy of Toulouse, sends in the Inquisition to enforce conversion. The strong Jewish community, rooted there since centuries, gains the support of the largely Cathar populace effectively severing for years relations between the Norman holdings in Gadary/Languedoc and Barcelona.

1238

Northern Europe:
The Battle of Örlygsstaðir marks the climax of the violent civil wars in Iceland: despite the Sturlung party's victory, no decisive result is achieved.

Western Europe:
The Castilians defeat an Andalusian invasion at San Pedro de las Lagunas (*OTL Daimiel), ensuring their rule over the contested vassal areas of the Secados (*OTL la Mancha).

Southern Europe:
Ezzelino da Romano assaults Milan and burns it, slaughtering hundreds of inhabitants; count-archbishop Guglielmo I da Rizolio is captured and publicly exhibited naked in a cage:D , later toured throughout Ezzelino's domains. Subsequent attempts to invade the Seprio lands and to besiege Pavia, however, founder among heavy resistance. Ezzelino's actions against cities and the Church, for cruel they are, touch a chord in the peasantry, who generally supports him; he also becomes a champion for the still strong Lombard Cathars.
The Patriarchate of Aquileia transfers its see from Zividal (*OTL Cividale del Friuli) to Udena (*OTL Udine).
Pisa ousts the Genoese from the Corsican fortresses of Bastia and Bonifacio.
Central-Eastern Europe:
Batu Khan's armies led by Subotai conquers Taurida (*OTL Crimea) and destroy the last Kipchak/Cuman strongholds at Tmutarakan and Soldaia/Sudak, whereas the Genoese coastal cities open the gates in fear, being spared destruction in exchange for a rich ransom and the promise of annual tributes. The Mongols then “pacify” Mordovia and northern Russia their way:eek: , capturing slaves in droves, and briefly come to besiege Novgorod, making it a vassal.

Byzantine Empire:
Michael I Megaplatos, despot of Turcopolia, dies, leaving a strong military state to his most trusted general, the Albanian-born Vlach George Korizenos.
The principality of Patras finally unifies Morea/Peloponnesus; Venice is ceded the port of Corone/Koroni.
Middle East:
Sungur Beg and his Turko-Khorezmians conquer Damascus from the Saifid empire.

SE Asia:
The Thai chieftain Pho Khun Si Indrathit founds the kingdom of Sukhotai (Siam) after a successful revolt against the Khmer empire; his domain soon enlarges to northern Laos.

India, Central Asia:
Chagatai Khan leads an expedition in support of his grandson Yäsüntoä of Hindustan, but his death by a tropical disease stops the planned campaign against the Dharma empire. The Mongols instead devastate and subdue Sindh, the last pocket of Muslim resistance. Central Asia - the Chagatai Khanate - is assigned by the Great Khan Ögedei to one of Chagatai's most valiant grandson, Qara Hülëgü – not without some infighting.

1238-1240

Southern Europe:
A baronial insurrection against king William III shakes Lesser Normandy (*southern Italy). The rebels, centered in Campania and led by brothers Giacomo and Desiderio da Maddaloni, distant cousins of the king, devastate half the reign before being decisively crushed at the Calore river and massacred.

1238-1249

Northern Europe:
The Swedes, led by regent Birger Jarl Magnusson, wage a second “crusade” to Christianize Finland, where active, if not very successful, proselitysm is being made by the Orthodox Church of Novgorod, and thousands of Russians are fleeing from the Mongols.

1239
Western Europe:
Castile invades Navarra upon the death of Ferdinand V, coming to besiege Pamplona, but is thoroughly defeated by Aquitanian and Greater Norman reinforcements sent in help of the young heir, Sancho V.

Southern Europe:
Ezzelino da Romano, defeated at the battle of Campese (near Pavia), renounces further adventures west and contents with his holdings, still claiming to be the “true” king of Lombardy. Despite cries from Pope Silvester II for a “crusade” against “nefandissimum Ecelinum, principem hereticorum ac servus satanae”:D :D :D , no one dares to move against the tyrant.

Central-Eastern Europe:
While waiting an answer after a request of tribute and alliance to Czar Iwan Skirmunt of Lithuania and Ruthenia, the Mongols crush the last free Russian principalities at Chernigov and Pereyaslavl, as a reminder just in case. But the aged Czar dies in a hunting accident, leaving his empire in shambles as his sons and generals vie for power, even asking help to the Mongols to get the crown:o . In the meantime, what remains of Alania is liquidated and annexed to the Golden Horde's vast domain.

Central Asia:
The Mongols of Möngke Khan exterminate the Ismaili Nizari Assassins in their fotress of Alamut in the Elburz mountains.

Far East:
The Mongols vassalize Tibet without bloodshed; the Tibetan Buddhist Lamas soon gain the respect of the conquerors with their wisdom and knowledge.
1240

British Isles:
In England the name “Parliament” is first established for the sessions of the nobles' council granted by the Magna Carta.

Western Europe, Southern Europe:
Robert le Bougre is recalled in Rome by the new Pope, Urban V (the Lombard Goffredo Castiglioni, a Seprio scion elected as an anti-Ezzelinian move) and closed in a monastery after his “excesses”:eek: in repressing heresy in France and England – some 10,000 could claim the dubious distinction of being his victims in only five years, and the Greater Norman empire was reduced on the verge of open rebellion.

Central-Eastern Europe:
Mindaugas, a valiant general of Lithuanian stock, still a pagan and brother-in-law of the deceased Iwan I Skirmunt, allies with the advancing Mongols:o , conquering Polotsk/Palteskei, and accepts the title of Grand Prince (only the Great Khan himself can concede royal titles to vassals). Treniota the Apostate, Skirmunt's pagan son, tries to resist in Kiev in alliance with the Cumans: Batu and Subotai turn against the former capital of Varangian Rus' and reduce it to burning ruins:eek: , beheading the would-be Czar. Then they raid Cumania (*OTL Moldavia), sending tens of thousands of refugees into Hungary. The Mongol army stops there and turns north to destroy Brasta/Berestye (*Brest-Litovsk), the main capital of Lithuania-Ruthenia, where the other sons and grandsons of Iwan Skirmunt had taken refuge; only Giligin and his sons manage to flee to Poland, and thence to far safer Sweden.

Byzantine Empire:
George Korizenos of Turcopolia ousts the Vlacho-Bulgarians from southern Macedonia and most of Albania.

Arabia:
A last Saifid attempt to subdue Mervid Yemen founders after the battle of 'Amran.

India:
The Solanki Chalukya dynasty of Gujarat falls to a Mongol expedition; the Vaghelas, former Solanki vassals, are given the realm as subjects of Khan-i-Hind Yäsüntoä.
Kulasekara Singai Aryan founds the Tamil kingdom of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka/Ceylon, establishing there the Arya Chakravarthi dynasty.
ca. 1240
Northern Europe:
The Icelander poet and statesman Snorri Sturluson writes down the Skraelingasaga, based on Olaf Eiriksson's exploration of New Palestine (*OTL Massachussets, New Hampshire and Maine) of almost a century before, diffusing into Scandinavia the first certain news about Hesperia (*OTL America), still called Vesteyjar by the Norsemen. In the same period some Coghound trade vessels, by way of Iceland and Greenland, reach Vinlandria (*OTL Newfoundland) and the Hesperian continent. In later years some of them will provide an irregular, rare and extremely costly and difficult contact between northern Hesperia and mainland Europe.

Black Africa:
The pagan Malinke/Mandinke ruler of Kangaba, Sundiata Keita, defeats Sumanguru of Sosso at the battle of Kirina, establishing the powerful Mali Empire and proclaiming himself Mansa (“king of kings”). The new ruler rejects Christianity, as Christianized tribes from the west have been preying for slaves over their animist neighbours since centuries; he'll later turn to Judaism, like many in his people.